The Order: 1886http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/default.aspxen-USTelligent Community 1.5.134.12297 (Build: 5.5.134.12297)Blog Post: A Beautifully Dark Orderhttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/b/user_reviews/archive/2015/03/19/a-beautifully-dark-order.aspxFri, 20 Mar 2015 03:43:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7378437Corvo Attano<p>The Order: 1886 has been the subject of considerable controversy as of late because of how many cutscenes are in it, and how short the game actually is as well. After beating this game, I have to say those aspects are very minor when the rest of the game is truly powerful.</p> <p>As most people in the gaming community know, The Order is known to have impeccable graphics, which of course does not account to everything in a game but when they have reached a level such as this, it is impossible not to be stunned. The people all look real, which only adds to how the game&#39;s story has a deep impact. Characters show their emotions extremely well, and the unique weaponry adds interesting color palettes to the games bleak base tone of grays.&nbsp;</p> <p>Along with the visuals, the sounds of The Order are flawless. The music is primarily an orchestra with a subtle choir backing it up, all with dark classical pieces that fit the rest of the game perfectly, and when the action picks up the music speeds into swelling and rapid songs that have you at the edge of your couch. Along with the music, the voice acting is some of the best I&#39;ve ever heard. Everyone has believable and natural accents, even the frenchman Lafayette (though he pinned as being the womanizer,) and they really add to immersing the player into the game&#39;s great atmosphere.</p> <p>The story of The Order is surprisingly deep in its tale of Sir Galahad, a knight of the Order who has recently discovered a conspiracy of the Lycans. The mysterious Blackwater in the game is an elixir that grants regenerating abilities and near-immortality to the user. Throughout the story you see how it affects people, not medically but in a spiritual sense, showing how God never intended for humans to live that long for a reason.</p> <p>When it comes to gameplay, the 3rd person shooter mechanics work really well. The game&#39;s mechanics are influenced heavily from Naughty Dog games, in specific the Uncharted series. The controls and concepts are almost identical expect for the sprint function of The Order (which works very similar to The Last of Us, also developed by Naughty Dog,) and yet because of that I enjoy the combat even more. </p> <p>Most all of the cutscenes become very interactive, as you go from blocking moves made by a Lycan, having a duel of blades, to wiping out an entire room of rebels. These cutscenes work to involve the player into the plot more, and it makes particular moments have a resonating feeling afterwards. Outside of this and the combat mechanics is where my minor complaints of the gameplay lie, however.</p> <p>The game believes at times that you, as the player, would rather be walking in certain sections rather than jogging through them, and thus disables the sprint button. I can&#39;t understand why the developers at Ready At Dawn Studios thought this was needed, but it was slightly off-putting. There is minor acrobatics as well in the game, similar to that of the Batman: Arkham series where the place to leap is distinctly noticeable, and deliberately moved so you don&#39;t feel like you might jump off the wrong edge of something. My problem with it is how they don&#39;t let you ever get a running start, which slows down the excitement of climbing across rooftops on a stealth mission or hijacking a cargo boat. The acrobatics themselves are very nice, but the flow between standard movement and acrobatics needs work.</p> <p>Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by The Order: 1886, as so many reviews neglected to praise it for what it is, but rather only pointed out what it isn&#39;t. Throughout the game I found myself ready to replay it simply because some parts are just that flawlessly made. I can&#39;t wait to see what Ready At Dawn does next, because in my mind they just put themselves on par with the rest of the AAA developers using 1886 as a great gaming start of 2015.</p>Blog Post: Raising the barhttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/b/user_reviews/archive/2015/02/27/raising-the-bar.aspxSat, 28 Feb 2015 04:22:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7334006DarkKilljoke<p>I have to say that this raises the bar for ps4. If your a graphic nut like me you will be amazed. I think this game deserves credit where credit is due. Game play I felt like I was controling a Gears of war character which may be for some been there done that but for me it was great. Pretty straight forward not to many places to roam around. Story is basic but interesting. The game flows in and out of the cut scenes very effortlessly which there are a lot. Reminding me of how Metal Gears cut scenes were and lengthy. I probably racked in about eight hours &amp; a bit of exploring to boot till I finished the game.Yeah it could probably take 5 hours to win if you want to speed run but you should stop and smell the roses. It has good replayability. Definitely unanswered questions remaining but hopefully headed in the right direction and leaves plenty of room for improvement and praying it will get better with age and maybe spawn a trilogy here&#39;s hoping.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>Blog Post: An Order of Well-Polished Presentation with a Side of Anticlimaxhttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/b/user_reviews/archive/2015/02/21/an-order-of-well-polished-presentation-with-a-side-of-anticlimax.aspxSat, 21 Feb 2015 22:27:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7321410Lord Of Mantas<p>&nbsp;<span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>Much like Knack before it, <i>The Order: 1886</i>&nbsp;is the current whipping boy of the gaming community, and of PS4 games in particular - a Metacritic score of 65, countless parody videos, and people everywhere decrying it. (The fact that I&#39;ve paid full price for both these games, viewed from a certain angle, might lead people to believe that I&#39;m far too easily swayed by hype, but of course we all know that&#39;s just ridiculous.) Does it deserve all the negativity? No... but yes isn&#39;t a perfect answer, either. <i>The Order</i>&nbsp;is, quite simply put, a well-made game with a couple of highly glaring chinks in its armor.</p> <p>&nbsp;<span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>As always, we begin with a recap. Set in a steampunk version of Victorian-era London, <i>The Order</i>&nbsp;puts you in the shoes of a man named Grayson - or as he&#39;s formally known, Sir Galahad. The titular Order, you see, is an organization descended from the original Knights of the Round table, whose sole mission in life is to defend the realm of mankind from the monstrous half-breeds (and by half-breeds, I mean werewolves). They are aided in this task, not only by highly advanced technology (courtesy of the one and only Nikola Tesla), but by the mystical Blackwater, a black substance gained from the Holy Grail that grants them an extended lifespan and the abiity to heal grievous wounds. Recently, however, the Order has had a bit of a problem. London is embroiled in a civil war, with the Order firmly on the side of the aristocracy - and it appears, by all accounts, as if the rebels and the half-breeds are colluding with one another.</p> <p>&nbsp;<span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>The story of <i>The Order</i>, in theory, should be one of its strong points, and for most of the game it is. While I doubt it will win any awards, I was fully invested in the characters within the game and their struggles, and no-one acted in a way that ever really broke my suspension of disbelief. Unfortunately, the story also provides <i>The Order&#39;s </i>biggest downfall, for there are two major problems with it. The first of these, the more forgivable one, is the mid-plot twist. Without giving too much away, Galahad discovers that the real enemy is a whole different kind of half-breed than the werewolves. When I saw this, I should have been wholly engrossed. Unfortunately, the fact that they never even hinted that other kinds of half-breed existed - which would have made the reveal very, very clever - took me out of the moment. The second offense, and the far more unforgivable one, is that the story ends on a massive anticlimax. In the game, two Big Bads are revealed, one clearly playing second fiddle to the other. Towards the end, you&#39;re led to believe that everything is going to lead up to a confrontation to both of them, and the the story will end with triumph over them and the beginning of a real war. This never happens; Galahad defeats the second fiddle, and right as he is killed, the story ends. None of the other plot threads are resolved, in what is clearly the <i>bad</i>&nbsp;kind of sequel-baiting. If not for the presence of a post-credits scene that portrays Galahad as continuing the fight, it would have dropped this game down to a clear 7/10.</p> <p>&nbsp;<span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>But enough about the story; I&#39;m sure you&#39;re all eager to hear the answer to another question: What about the rest of the game?</p> <p>&nbsp;<span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>On the presentation side of things, the game is flawless. The graphics are beautiful, the sound design and score are perfect, and the voice-acting is top-notch. If you ever wanted to bust out something that shows what the PS4 can do in these regards, this would be the game to do it with. A particular touch I enjoyed was the game mechanic where you can pick up and &#39;inspect&#39; objects in the environment, which I think helps to greatly increase your immersion and give you a chance to admire the modeler&#39;s hard work.</p> <p>&nbsp;<span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>And as long as we&#39;re talking about mechanics, that gives us the perfect excuse to segue into the gameplay. The gameplay... is good. Not great, not okay, not bad, just good. Many have accused it of being derivative of <i>Gears of War</i>, and other third-person shooters. I have not played <i>Gears of War</i>, and only a limited number of third-person shooters, so I&#39;m not so inured to that kind of gameplay; as such, I can only tell you what I think. The controls felt very smooth, with only a few moments of frustration (mostly linked to muscle memory), and all of the weapons felt and handled wonderfully. I will admit that there isn&#39;t much in the way of enemy variety, but that never bothered me much. What did bother me about the gameplay were two things. First, the fights against half-breeds can be very frustrating; they pop in and out of hiding very quickly and charge, giving you a very limited amount of time to a) dodge and b) get enough bullets in them to finish them off, making those fights an exercise in frustration. Secondly, there are two boss fights in the game, and both of them are QTE-based knife fights. Personally, I thought the cinematic presentation of them was well-done, and they&#39;re not as bad as some other QTE-based boss fights in recent memory, but for once - especially the boss-fight - it would have been good to have the final boss be a proper, gun-based battle.</p> <p>&nbsp;<span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>There are other criticisms to be made, as well. As often harped on about, the game is short, clocking in around 7 hours. This isn&#39;t necessarily a bad thing; short games can still be worth the asking price if the content&#39;s good. However, the content here is more okay then good, and, as I mentioned earlier, the story really needed a few extra chapters to resolve the dangling threads (about 3 more hours, I reckon, would have done the trick). Secondly, once you&#39;re done with the game, there&#39;s no replay value - you finish the story, that&#39;s it. There are no side activities, nothing except the (well-designed ) levels and shooting galleries. Of course, there are the collectibles and interactive objects to find (some of which fill in little details about the world), but those are more of a garnish than anything substantive, and exist mostly to give Ready At Dawn an excuse for trophies.</p> <p>&nbsp;<span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>So, all in all, is <i>The Order</i>&nbsp;a bad game? No. Is it a good game? No. It&#39;s on the good side of okay. While I have no regrets about purchasing it, I do understand why it has the reputation it does. My personal recommendation, if you consider yourself a man/woman of more discerning tastes, would be to pick it up once the price drops a bit. $30-40, I think, is a very good price for this game. Or, if you&#39;re really cheap, watch it online. You won&#39;t get the fun of the shooting, but that still leaves most of the good parts for you to enjoy.</p> <p>Pros: Gorgeous presentation, smooth controls, fun gunplay, and a unique take on collectible items.</p> <p>Cons: A horribly anticlimactic and sequel-baiting story, a somewhat short length, QTE boss battles, and the fun gunplay is really nothing you haven&#39;t seen before. Also, the game crashed on me once. But only once.</p>File: The Order: 1886 Review Screenshttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/m/the_order_1886_media/7317428.aspxThu, 19 Feb 2015 22:51:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7317428Matt Miller Images from the final gameFile: The Order: 1886 Review Screenshttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/m/the_order_1886_media/7317427.aspxThu, 19 Feb 2015 22:51:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7317427Matt Miller Images from the final gameFile: The Order: 1886 Review Screenshttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/m/the_order_1886_media/7317426.aspxThu, 19 Feb 2015 22:51:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7317426Matt Miller Images from the final gameFile: The Order: 1886 Review Screenshttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/m/the_order_1886_media/7317425.aspxThu, 19 Feb 2015 22:51:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7317425Matt Miller Images from the final gameFile: The Order: 1886 Review Screenshttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/m/the_order_1886_media/7317424.aspxThu, 19 Feb 2015 22:51:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7317424Matt Miller Images from the final gameBlog Post: Uncompromising Cinematic Visionhttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/b/playstation4/archive/2015/02/19/game-informer-review-the-order-1886.aspxThu, 19 Feb 2015 13:01:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7313298Matt Miller<p><img border="0" style="max-width:610px;" src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/filestorage/CommunityServer.Components.SiteFiles/imagefeed/featured/sony2015/readyatdawn/theorder/bridge610.jpg" alt="" /></p> <p>One of the things I love about speculative fiction is diving headlong into a new world and figuring out the details as the story unfolds. The Order: 1886 is a triumph of world building, ripe to be explored by players who enjoy that sensation of confusion and discovery as the pieces of the fiction fall into place. Ready At Dawn&rsquo;s first original IP is also a masterpiece of cinematic immersion. Environments feel gritty and authentic, characters exhibit genuine emotions, and every scene looks like it could be a still cut from a thoughtfully crafted film. The technical and artistic talent on display is astounding, but it comes at a price. The clear desire to embrace the cinematic experience comes at the cost of player agency; The Order: 1886 often places you in the passenger seat instead of letting you steer.&nbsp;</p> <p>The Knights of the Round Table have survived the centuries, using a mystical and vaguely sinister tonic to unnaturally extend their lives. In the rare instance that one knight dies, a new soldier steps up to take his predecessor&rsquo;s name. Standing in opposition to these near-immortal warriors are the half-breeds &ndash; warped creatures torn from the pages of gothic novels. The long-lived knights of the Order have finally gained a foothold in the war through the advent of industrial technology, and now they serve a British Empire at the height of its power.&nbsp;</p> <p>The story is structured around introducing the setting, but deliberate pacing and mature, complicated characters keep things interesting. The main characters carry the weight of too many years, and through smart dialogue and gradual exposition, we get a sense of the toll that endless fighting has taken; don&rsquo;t expect pithy jokes or other attempts to lighten the mood. The Order&rsquo;s melding of established genres is seamless. London is oppressive and grim, but the zeppelins floating through the sky and sparking weapons on our heroes&rsquo; backs remind us that this history is slightly off from the 19th century we know.&nbsp;</p> <p>Production values set a high bar for new-gen consoles. Cool gray colors dominate, lending an antique flair to the immaculately detailed environments. Soft lighting and barely perceptible particles make each location memorable. Conversations exhibit remarkable character animation work, accentuated by excellent voice acting and naturally flowing dialogue at home in the Victorian vernacular. Old photos and scratchy phonograph recordings contribute authenticity, but these minor extras rarely add meaningful context to the story. A landscape view of the action is another nod to film technique, but I can&rsquo;t say I&rsquo;m a fan of the way it limits the player&rsquo;s view of the action to a narrow bar.</p> <p>[View:4002579913001]</p> <p>While the visual technology on display is stellar, The Order&rsquo;s gameplay is in many ways a callback to earlier generations. A linear story carries the player forward, heavy on cinematic sequences and slowly paced periods of exploration. Quick time events crop up frequently, forcing timed button presses to resolve melee encounters and other crises. A simple lock-picking minigame blocks door access. Boxes must be pushed into place to open up a spot to climb. In short, The Order rarely grasps for innovation in its action, and the slower pace of many chapters puts a big focus on enjoying the setting, and a lower priority on interaction.&nbsp;</p> <p>Combat is the centerpiece of gameplay, but even the battles feel familiar. I couldn&rsquo;t shake the feeling I was playing through a long- established template for third-person shooting mechanics. Thankfully, a varied collection of weapons adds excitement; potent shotguns and machine pistols sit alongside more exotic offerings that fire off bursts of lightning or clouds of explosive thermite. Each of these cool devices has advantages and drawbacks, and I enjoyed experimenting with all of them. Aiming feels a little rigid, perhaps in a nod to the old-fashioned style of the guns, but the stiff response ultimately detracts from otherwise solid shooting.</p> <p>Even if the fighting is a little derivative, the hightly scripted action scenes remain tense and rewarding. Enemies are aggressive, flanking or pinning you behind a crate as it is steadily degraded by bullets. Moving between hiding places is smooth, and the occasional melee feels brutal and satisfying. Even a brief stealth sequence holds up well, though having failures send you back to a checkpoint is jarring. Needing to equip grenades rather than having a dedicated throw button gives them less utility, so it&rsquo;s easy to forget about them.&nbsp;</p> <p>While The Order: 1886 is a fun adventure with lots of intriguing reveals about the nature of its world, it&rsquo;s also clear that Ready At Dawn intends for this to be the first game of a grander story. Players should brace themselves for a lot of unresolved character arcs and unanswered questions. This is an origin story, but a fascinating one. 1886 goes against the current tide of open-world wandering and emergent sequences, and banks on the idea that players can enjoy a straightforward and relatively brief cinematic adventure &ndash; if it&rsquo;s well told and original. I hope Ready At Dawn is right; I&rsquo;d love to see what happens in 1887.&nbsp;</p>Blog Post: Behind The Scenes Video Goes In-Depth With The Knights Of The Order: 1886http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/b/playstation4/archive/2015/02/17/the-knights-of-the-order-1886.aspxTue, 17 Feb 2015 15:47:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7314021Matthew Kato<p><img style="max-width:610px;" src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/filestorage/CommunityServer.Components.SiteFiles/imagefeed/featured/sony2014/the-order/overflow/theorder18862.17610.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></p> <p>The latest behind-the-scenes video for The Order: 1886 explores the game&#39;s characters and the actors that voice them. In the video the developers at Ready at Dawn talk about the characters, the relationships between them, the voice actors that bring them to life, and the technology that wraps it all up .[Excerpt]</p> <p>For more in this video series, check out this previous video covering <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/b/playstation4/archive/2015/02/05/the-sub-conscious-realism-of-the-order-1886.aspx">the game&#39;s graphics</a>. The Order: 1886 comes out for PlayStation 4 on Friday, February 20.</p> <p>[view:4062432317001]</p> <p>For more on the title, check out <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/p/theorder.aspx">our cover story</a> from November 2013.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/p/theorder.aspx"><img style="max-width:610px;" src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/filestorage/CommunityServer.Components.SiteFiles/imagefeed/featured/sony2013/readyatdawn/983798/1113_TheOrder1886_610_Ad_v1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a></p>Blog Post: The Sub-Conscious Realism Of The Order: 1886http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/b/playstation4/archive/2015/02/05/the-sub-conscious-realism-of-the-order-1886.aspxThu, 05 Feb 2015 15:34:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7292908Matthew Kato<p><img src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/filestorage/CommunityServer.Components.SiteFiles/imagefeed/featured/sony2014/the-order/overflow/theorder3.5610.jpg" border="0" style="max-width:610px;" alt="" /></p> <p>In this latest behind-the-scenes development video, The Order: 1886 creator Ready at Dawn talks about the various elements that go into making the title look and feel as real as possible.[Excerpt]</p> <p>From non-traditional lighting (at least by video game standards) to cloth rendering, the developers are trying to do what it takes &ndash; big and small &ndash; so that the game looks and feels like the real thing.</p> <p>[view:4034039914001]</p> <p>For more on the game, check out <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2015/01/28/everything-we-know-about-the-order-1886.aspx">Everything We Know</a> about it, as well as the <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/b/playstation4/archive/2015/01/21/latest-the-order-1886-trailer-digs-into-the-story.aspx">latest story trailer</a>.</p> <p>The Order: 1886 comes out for the PlayStation 4 on February 20.</p>Blog Post: Latest The Order: 1886 Trailer Digs Into The Storyhttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/b/playstation4/archive/2015/01/21/latest-the-order-1886-trailer-digs-into-the-story.aspxWed, 21 Jan 2015 16:54:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7264702Jeff Cork<p><img src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/filestorage/CommunityServer.Components.SiteFiles/imagefeed/featured/sony2014/the-order/overflow/theorder0121-610.jpg" border="0" style="max-width:610px;" alt="" /></p> <p>Ready at Dawn says its upcoming game The Order: 1886 has gone gold, and is ready for its February 20 release date. The studio has released a new story trailer to keep us all busy while we wait.[Excerpt]</p> <p>The clip provides a bit of insight on the battle between rebels, weird beasts, and Knights. It also highlights the combat, in which Galahad and the other Knights take advantage of an arsenal of experimental weapons. They may be anachronistic, but why nitpick when they do such an excellent job of making enemy heads vanish?</p> <p>[view:4002579913001]</p> <p>For more on The Order: 1866, check out <a title="Kim and Reiner&#39;s impressions" href="http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/b/playstation4/archive/2014/12/07/breaking-down-the-new-demo-of-the-order-1886.aspx">Kim and Reiner&#39;s impressions</a> from their hands-on time with the game. And for an even deeper dive, visit our hub page by clicking on the banner below.</p> <p><a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/p/theorder.aspx"><img src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/filestorage/CommunityServer.Components.SiteFiles/imagefeed/featured/sony2013/readyatdawn/983798/1113_TheOrder1886_610_Ad_v1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a></p>Blog Post: Watch The Order: 1886's Holiday Trailer, Featuring Silent Nighthttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/b/playstation4/archive/2014/12/26/watch-the-order-1886-holiday-trailer-featuring-silent-night.aspxFri, 26 Dec 2014 18:45:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7210707Kimberley Wallace<p><img src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/filestorage/CommunityServer.Components.SiteFiles/imagefeed/featured/sony2014/the-order/overflow/theordernewtrailer1226.jpg" border="0" style="max-width:610px;" alt="" /></p> <p>For the holidays, Ready at Dawn released a new trailer for The Order: 1886, featuring the song, &quot;Silent Night.&quot; [Excerpt]</p> <p>The Order: 1886 is due out February 20, so it&#39;s nice to see some more footage before launch.</p> <p>The trailer may have &quot;Silent Night&quot; playing, but what&#39;s going on in it is anything but. While it starts quiet, you soon see brutal punches, intense gunfire, and&nbsp;<span>werewolves viciously attacking.</span></p> <p>See for yourself in the trailer below.</p> <p>[view:3961559518001]</p> <p>For more on The Order: 1886, you can check out <a title="our impressions" href="http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/b/playstation4/archive/2014/12/07/breaking-down-the-new-demo-of-the-order-1886.aspx">our impressions</a> from the PlayStation Experience expo.&nbsp;</p> <p><i>What do you think so far?</i></p>Blog Post: Breaking Down The New Demo Of The Order: 1886http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/b/playstation4/archive/2014/12/07/breaking-down-the-new-demo-of-the-order-1886.aspxSun, 07 Dec 2014 21:45:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7170424Kimberley Wallace<p><img style="max-width:610px;" border="0" src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/filestorage/CommunityServer.Components.SiteFiles/imagefeed/featured/sony2015/the-order/theorder610127.jpg" alt="" /></p> <p>Ready at Dawn&rsquo;s The Order: 1886 is only a few months away from release, hitting on February 20. The game captures Ready at Dawn&rsquo;s vision of Victorian Era London where man uses advanced technology to battle evil. A new trailer recently debuted at the Game Awards and we got to play an extended version here at The PlayStation Experience in Las Vegas. From kitchen wars to rappelling down the side of an airship, The Order: 1886 is a hard game to pin down, but it&rsquo;s intriguing for that reason. Andrew Reiner and I share our thoughts on our hands-on demo. [Excerpt]&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Kim:</strong> We haven&rsquo;t seen much of The Order: 1886 yet, which is surprising since it&rsquo;s coming out in February. I&rsquo;m always wondering what the game is actually going to entail. Do you feel like the demo gave you a better idea of what&rsquo;s in store?&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Reiner:</strong> I do. I played 45 minutes of it, and walked away both surprised and pleased by it. You are right, they haven&rsquo;t shown much up until this point. I feared they were hiding something, but I now think this may be a case of Ready at Dawn being overly protective of it, and not wanting to give out story spoilers.</p> <p><strong>Kim:</strong> I&rsquo;ll admit I was pleasantly surprised. The gunplay felt tight and I enjoyed getting around the chaos, finding cover, and stealing guns from enemies. I also didn&rsquo;t mind the QTEs, as they didn&rsquo;t feel overdone or out of place. I know people have been concerned that this will be too QTE-driven, but it seemed pretty balanced. Also, the demo we played had two different areas of the airship. One felt like a very standard battle venue, but as you go into the airship, you really get a different feel the game. One part lets you see the London vista, which looks fantastic. In another, I was fumbling around a kitchen blasting down rebels. &nbsp;I&rsquo;m really excited to see what else the world offers. What&rsquo;d you think of the gunplay and locales?</p> <p><strong>&nbsp;Reiner:</strong> I don&rsquo;t think Anglophiles are going to get much of a historical takeaway from this experience; it looks more steampunk and fantasy than a historic piece. That said, the inner workings of the airship were impressively detailed, giving off a nice sense of scale, and of the unique technologies people use in this version of London. I especially liked the lockpick, a vibrating device that shakes the lock bolts free. The airship&rsquo;s escape pods (which are just mini-hot air balloons) are also quite clever.</p> <p>The gunplay felt good, and the demo gave us a nice look at both cover-based shooting and sniping. I do have to question the A.I. at this point. Many of the enemies I dropped didn&rsquo;t seem to fear for their lives, and stood in the same locations as their fallen comrades. The sniping reminded me a little bit of the Hitman series. In one sequence, Galahad is on the second story, overlooking a lobby filled with passengers and military figures. He&rsquo;s in hushed communication with his fellow Knights, trying to figure out of if there are any rebel threats in the crowd. The player is tasked in this moment to locate soldiers without patches on their right arms. You have to wait for them to turn around, and if their sleeves are barren of the military insignia, press a button to identify them. Once the targets are confirmed, Galahad is asked to drop them. This silenced sniping moment doesn&rsquo;t exactly go as planned, and gives way to an exciting assault sequence.</p> <p>[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFyoHXLu3zM:610:343]</p> <p><strong>Kim: </strong>Yeah, I enjoyed the frantic pacing of it all. It kept the intensity up well and areas didn&rsquo;t feel like &ldquo;dead weight.&rdquo; Even in times when the pace dropped a bit, it was to stock on up on weapons or to engage in a QTE minigame, where you had to push both R3 and L3 at the right time to hold in the lock. I&rsquo;m most curious about the advanced technology in the game and how that may relate to weapons. Right now, my guns seemed pretty basic with sniper and assault rifles. Also, this is probably a long shot, but I hope this game lets me control an airship. I think the hardest thing for me is how you define The Order: 1886. It seems all over the place. We&rsquo;ve seen creepy werewolves as enemies; this demo was more grounded in real life with rebels out to assassinate a government leader. How the heck does all this merge together? As you said previously, I definitely get a steampunk vibe from the game more than anything else. I just can&rsquo;t define the game yet and I&rsquo;m not sure that&rsquo;s entirely a good thing.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Reiner:</strong> I like the tone they are going for. It&rsquo;s not as ridiculous as something like Van Helsing, but still provides plenty of intrigue and possibilities that are out of the ordinary. The tension always seems to be ratcheted up, even when the Knights are just standing around and talking.</p> <p><strong>Kim:</strong> I also should mention that the game still looks stunning, even when you&rsquo;re not in a cutscene. The best part is my curiosity about this world and how I can&rsquo;t entirely pin it down. The attention to detail is noticeable, especially on the enemies and their attire, specifically with hats and scarves. It feels out of the Victorian Era, but also has its own flavor. How do you feel about the graphics and overall look?</p> <p><strong>Reiner:</strong> I was impressed by the level of detail in it, not just for the character models and world, but the little touches, such as the animations that accompany small actions like door opening, and Galahad taking cover. It reminds me of Naughty Dog&rsquo;s Uncharted games. Yes, I know this is a hell of a comparison to make, but I think it works here. The demo we played was cinematic and linear, often breaking away from the action to deliver story content. I still have no idea what this story is, but the I rather much enjoyed the dialogue shared between the Knights, and the urgency behind their actions.</p> <p><strong>Kim: </strong>Exactly. We still know very little about the story and how other sequences will play out. I came away from the demo feeling more positive than I was expecting. I&rsquo;m just hoping it all comes together nicely.</p>File: The Order PlayStation Experiencehttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/m/the_order_1886_media/7170331.aspxSun, 07 Dec 2014 21:30:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7170331Kimberley WallaceCheck out the latest screensFile: The Order PlayStation Experiencehttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/m/the_order_1886_media/7170329.aspxSun, 07 Dec 2014 21:30:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7170329Kimberley WallaceCheck out the latest screensFile: The Order PlayStation Experiencehttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/m/the_order_1886_media/7170328.aspxSun, 07 Dec 2014 21:30:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7170328Kimberley WallaceCheck out the latest screensFile: The Order PlayStation Experiencehttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/m/the_order_1886_media/7170326.aspxSun, 07 Dec 2014 21:30:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7170326Kimberley WallaceCheck out the latest screensFile: The Order PlayStation Experiencehttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/m/the_order_1886_media/7170325.aspxSun, 07 Dec 2014 21:30:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7170325Kimberley WallaceCheck out the latest screensFile: The Order PlayStation Experiencehttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_order_1886/m/the_order_1886_media/7170320.aspxSun, 07 Dec 2014 21:30:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:7170320Kimberley WallaceCheck out the latest screens